Pearl 8220 Hitting Rogers at $49.99! Some Strings Attached.

We put forth the notion of $49.99 BlackBerry KickStart (now Pearl 8220) pricing for T-Mobile, and it looks like things are still on target... for the most part. The info just posted by BBNews is for Rogers in Canada, with the flip phone Pearl initially being targeted toward students via a Back To School promo. Here are the details:

Retail Price: $599.993-Year Voice and Data Contract Price: $99.99Special Promotional Price:$49.99 CDN
The special promotional price that Rogers is hoping to sell a lot of 8220s with requires the student sign up for the $45 Student Plan, $15 an up Email Plan, and $15 or $20 Value Pack.

The $45 Student Plan includes:

450 Weekday Minutes

Unlimited Evenings and Weekends starting at 6pm

MY5 Canada-Wide (Unlimited talk, SMS, and MMS to any five numbers in Canada)

Unlimited Local Incoming Minutes

$5 off Value Pack for duration of contract

Sum up the monthly commitment and i'd argue it's on the hefty side for most students, but I guess time will tell just how attractive this pricing is. It'll be interesting to see how T-Mobile gets the Kickstart flip Pearl down to $50. Hopefully it'll be a bit better deal than this.

it's nice to see what canada is doing with the promotion. but no matter which way you look at it, that plan is a rip off. just buy the phone for the 3 year contract price at 99 bucks and go for the standard rates. wow though...3 year contracts? whats that all about? hopefully that doesn't come to the u.s. anytime soon.

The price is high but the average cost of phones without a contract, regardless of what kind it is, usually goes for around that price range. You also must not forget it's still a smartphone. There are other flip phones that go for the same amount.

Many people have hookups that don't pay the full retail price, but for those who don't have those hookups, this is what they see and pay for on average.

I know it's still a smartphone. The Pearl 8120 from T-Mobile is USD$349 full price. The 8320 Curve at full price is USD$449. Why would this flip phone - also targeted at consumers - have a higher full retail price?

I hope the non-contract price from T-Mobile is much lower. I buy phones more often than I can use the upgrade subsidy, so I was planning to buy this one at full price, but not over $500. Hopefully not even over $300. It's just 2.5G for hell sakes!

I seriously hope that 600 price tag is not gonna be the real price... I was planning on buying the phone since it's cheaper to go down that route than to pay for a data plan over 3 years time (especially since I DON'T want the data plan.)

Agreed with the opinion. To take all that extras just to get the $50 price, you have to be an idiot, unless you wanted all that to begin with. You'd end up paying so much money monthly over 3 years that it's flabbergasting to expect that from a student. I don't even have that many minutes and my cell phone is my main phone (with unlimited incoming & early evening @ 5pm). Rogers is smoking some good stuff thinking they'd sell a lot of those phones with those strings because it's beyond their target market.

Ouch, that's ridiculously expensive for students. The new student plan on Telus is $35 with unlimited browsing (no email or data though.)

I don't know any students (high school, college or university) who can afford $70-$75 a month plus access fees plus taxes. I also don't know many parents who will be willing to pay that for their kid...

Ugh, Rogers really thinks it's the sh!t, to be able to offer these prices and think they're giving good deals......

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